Falcons to Battle Titans on Tuesday

It is a mystery to me why the University of Detroit is not a consistent power in basketball.  They really should be.  They are in a fertile recruiting area in a basketball town.  Their town is picked over by recruiters from around the country.  It just should be something you can count on.

Alas, it has not been.  They have had their moments.  Ray McCallum Sr. took them to the tourney in 2012.  They made it twice in the late 90's.  But they are not a consistent power.

They decided that they had enough of Ray McCallum Sr. after a couple of average seasons and let him go.  (Note for the curious.  Ray McCallum Jr is playing in Turkey as a pro).  They went for Bacari Alexander, a UM assistant and UD grad, and this was an abject disaster.  He won 16 games in two years, was suspended, etc.  And fired.

Then, they went on a coaching search that did not end until the middle of June, when they named Mike Davis to the job.  And I believe they have the man who can do what they need.

Davis can coach.  He replaced Bob Knight and took IU to the Final.  He won 63% of his games at UAB and then he went to Texas Southern and took them to the NCAAs 4 times.  He was 88-20 in his conference games.  Is that something I might be able to interest you in?  He can coach and if they stay with him, I think he might do some big things at UD.

In the meantime, things could be a little rough.  They had only 3 scholarship players around when Davis got there.  Think about that.  He had to wonder how a team was going to end up on the court.

He went to work.  They have two graduate transfers...Angelo State and New Mexico.  The roster has five freshmen on it.  There's also 5 JUCO players.  I suspect they had to wear name tags to the first practice.

They are not expected to be good this year.  They are picked last in the Horizon.  Kenpom has them #329 out of 351 D1 teams.

They are 1-3 this year.  They lost @WMU by 13, @Temple by 16 and @Butler by 21, none of which would be called a catastrophe.  They beat Loyola-Maryland by 28 in their home opener last night, in what would qualify as jesuit-on-jesuit crime.  Loyola-Maryland is also ranked low, but that's a blowout win in your home opener.

They were led by Antoine Davis--the coach's kid, who was headed to Houston before Dad got the job in the D--WHO SCORED 42 POINTS shooting 14 of 21 and 10 of 14 from 3.  He also had 5 assists.

Is that something I might be able to interest you in?

He scored 32 against WMU, 30 at Temple and 20 at Butler.  Overall, he's shooting 49% on 2FGs and 50% on 3FGs.

Yowch.

Derrien King, the grad transfer from Angelo State (Jinks alma mater), scored 17 on 6 of 13 and 4 of 7 shooting.  Gerald Blackshear--a holdover--had 9 rebounds.

Anyway, this team might be on a quicker turnaround than expected.  They are #85 in frequency of 3FGs and #28 in making them this year, to date.  They are terrible at the free throw line.

This has actually turned into an interesting matchup.  Pure road game for the Falcons.